Sadler excited at the prospect of facing the Latics on Boxing Day
Shrewsbury Town Defender Mat Sadler admits that Town’s Boxing Day clash with Wigan is the type of game you want to play in as a professional footballer.
The game sees two of Sky Bet League One’s top ties pit their wits against each other on one of the biggest days in the football calendar.
“I thoroughly enjoy it”, said Mat.
“It’s not so much fun if you aren’t playing, but if you are playing and love playing for the club then there’s no better time to be playing.
“The games come very quickly and what you want to be doing is playing games in front of big crowds and exciting fans and that’s hopefully what we will get over this period.”
Paul Hurst has described Wigan as the best team in League One and Mat echoed those sentiments.
“They are very good”, Sadler said.
“They’ve got lots of weapons and lots of routes to be able to score goals, they concede very few like ourselves, and they’ve got a very good manager and a large squad to be able to bring players on.
“Without question they’ve got all the makings on a team that could do well this season and they probably were the best team that we’ve played in the first-half of the season.
“Going to their backyard will make it additionally tough in front of what will hopefully be a half-decent crowd, but they are the ones you want to play in and I can’t wait.”
Earlier this season Town beat Wigan 1-0 in a thrilling encounter and whilst Sadler enjoyed that victory, he thinks it will count for very little come 3pm on Boxing Day.
“It gives us confidence, but what I will say is that when you cross the white line it is a completely different game”, admitted Mat.
“It’s great that we’ve played and beat them because it’s an additional three points on our total, but that will count for nothing when we start trading blows.”